Elise Juarros and Rosa Vaia

Q&A

Elise Juarros and Rosa Vaia

Founders of

Elise Juarros and Rosa Vaia can you speak the begining of your journey into perfumery?

We met about ten years ago in Paris and that moment was the beginning at first of a long-lasting and honest friendship. Elise was experiencing an internship at Yves Saint Laurent and was already dealing with the universe of fragrances. That was instead my first approach to the opportunity to create a perfume. (Rosa)

What are your histories and backgrounds?

I was born in Strasburg and then I moved to Paris when I still was a child. After attending foreign languages studies there, I moved first to Great Britain and then to Spain. The experience at YSL offered me the chance to come back to Paris and entering the universe of fashion and perfumes, where I met Rosa. And after our cooperation started, I finally decided to move to Italy where I still live by now. (Elise)

I was born in a little city close to Naples but I attended university in Milan and NYC with an economical and marketing orientation. I approached to the universe of fine fragrances by chance in Paris, driven by people who recognized in me the talent for notes and natural scents. (Rosa)

Had there always been a interest in fragrance or was it something that developed over time?

For both of us, the connection with perfumes has always been passionate and curious: through the universe of fragrances we believe it is possible to fix memories and bring them to life again and again.

Are there any scents that last in your memories from your childhood?

My olfactory memory is deeply connected to my childhood and to the classical French fragrances universe: the strongest memory concerning perfumes is the white flowers atmosphere I used to love at school. When I smell tuberose, gardenia and ylang ylang I always think back at my French teachers since they introduced my nose and my attitude to these peculiar and overwarming flowers. (Elise)

To me, one of the stronger olfactory memories is deeply connected with Naples’ coast and seaside I used to walk when I was a child: the smell of pine, wild fig and local summer trees. That’s my personal idea of freshness, the sensation of air when summer ends.

How did the brand begin?

It was the end of 2012 when we decided to build up our own line of perfumes. After creating so many different perfumes for other brands, we experienced the desire to launch something which would have been our creation: a sort of a family affair. The journey started with Herat and Sulmona and kept going on by mixing abilities and looking for extremely peculiar notes coming from nature.

Can you speak about your team, and how everyones area of creativity merges to create the brand and scents? That’s kind of the same point: we suppose consumer have to love perfumes for what they are and it won’t be necessary to understand the company policy and organisation. Hope you would agree on that too.

Can you speak on the design of the bottles?

The unique velvety black package is not just the pursuit of beauty and exception but it has a technical reason: since all the fragrances are Extrait de Parfums by boasting a 20% concentration of perfume, they need to be protected from direct sunshine light. Besides, it is the final packaging without any further box to point out the idea that a perfume needs to be simple and to speak in first person for itself. The consumer will receive it with final cellophane on it.

Can you speak on the concept of the line?

As anticipated the line is conceived as a journey, a developing approach: every single perfume can boast a peculiar and unique ingredient or more. Starting with Herat you can experience Tobacco Cuban and wood amber Afghan hashish mixed with jasmine and incense for a perfect blend inspired by a poetry contest for young women in Afghanistan. The second step is Sulmona, a pleasing gourmand perfume made unique by the bitterness of Sicilian almond, especially created for Elise’s wedding. Moramanga features the most unique white flowers mixed with benzoin and opoponax in order to create an exotic tuberose not indolic at all: the result is a gourmand mix of white flower without any animal or ink smell influence. Sumatera is the most spicy fragrance where cinnamon is mixed with a very unique ingredient: the green patchouli from Sumatra.

Different from the common patchouli, this is the only fragrance in the world performing it and it has to be extracted by local people who have been thought how to extract it by using glass. The result is a surprising fragrance with a strong personality. Tan Tan is the symbolic port city in Morocco, the place where the journey ends: pine and absinthe are blended with sweet fig and coconut milk. This is to Elise and Rosa the idea of freshness and the olfactory sensation are linked to summer ending in Italian seaside. Finally, Tudor: symbol of the end of Hundred Years war, it also signs the end of the line with the most common olfactory pyramid and a very unique ingredient. The last step is the most demanding, featuring benzoin, lily of the valley and rosewood instead of rose petals to create something with great personality and the idea of long-lasting beauty.

Where is the line of fragrance sold?

It is sold both in Italy and abroad in niche perfumery stores and luxurious concept stores following the philosophy of luxury.

Finally is there anything else that you would like to share.

Sure! We would be proud to announce our brand new projects for 2016. On one side, the line will be enlarged by introducing the seventh Coquillete and the aim is to point out our idea of creation and uniqueness: since we are producers and not just noses, we decided to express our ability to be flexible and blend unique notes to create fragrances. Our approach as artisans of the perfume will be expressed by focusing on the perfume store: the seventh fragrance of the line will be entirely customized on the shop with the chance to decide both for the name on it and for the olfactory approach, working together with the creators of the perfume. The package will be exactly the same, in the velvety black box our consumers already love and it will be something very special since it will be sold just in that precise point of sale. Esxence 2016 will be the opportunity to launch some new fragrances of the line and give the opportunity to the stores to be known all over the world.

Beside, the other news is about a unique Home Fragrances line: six different scents for your home sold in ceramic box with sticks but also a little refillable spray packaging. The point is that you can refill it and spray on your own skin to create a complete atmosphere with your home during dinners or events for instance. The idea we would like to convey by creating home wearable fragrances is that: you are your home and that’s exactly the place where you can feel at your ease.